The Catching Away of the Church
Selected Scriptures
Tonight we come to the marvelous theme which is the thrill of all believers and that is the theme the catching away of the church. We're going to be looking at several texts. In 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 and verse 13 we learn that there are three great Christian graces, faith, hope, and love.
And for the most part, we know a lot about faith, a lot about love, but we're often a very little vague about hope, and yet it's included with those others. You ask the average churchgoer, for example, what is your hope? You read about hope, it's all over the place in the Bible. But what is your hope? And perhaps the average churchgoer would say well my hope is salvation. I hope to be saved and to make it to heaven when I die.
Or maybe he states in terms of eternal life. He hopes to get eternal life when he dies. That's his hope. Or somebody else might say well my hope is death. I'm tired of this world and all the suffering and I want to die and my hope is that I'll die and be released from pain and suffering. And this was what was basically, seemingly the hope of those in the south who for so many years sang the spirituals that just talked about being carried away from the troubles of life into the arms of Jesus.
And you might ask somebody else, what's your hope and maybe getting a little closer to the truth, they might say well, my hope is heaven. I'm looking forward to heaven. Heaven is my hope. Well, I want you to know that the scripture does not present salvation as our hope. It does not present eternal life as our hope. It does not present death as our hope. And it does not present heaven as our hope.
In fact, salvation to begin with is a present possession. You're not waiting for salvation, it's yours. In John 5:24, "Jesus said, verily, verily I say unto you he that hears my words and believes on Him that sent me has eternal life and is passed from death unto life." That's present tense. We don't hope for salvation, we have it. We only await the fullness of what that salvation means.
In 1 John 3:2, the Bible says "beloved now are we the sons of God." Not tomorrow, not in the future, but now. And so salvation and eternal life is ours now. Salvation is not something way off the gates of heaven. Salvation is something way back at the cross. That's all taken care of in history. That's not in the future. That's in the past.
But then what about those who say our hope is in death and the release from the world and from suffering. I don't think that's our hope either. Death is simply the wages of sin. And death can't be our hope for the simple reason that not all of us are going to die, right? "We shall not all sleep," Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:51. Not everybody who's a Christian is going to die. So death can't be our hope.
But what about heaven, is heaven our hope? Not really. Let me show you why? 1 Peter Chapter 1, Verse 3. Now listen, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope." Now there's a statement we have a living hope.
Now go to verse 4, "To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away," watch, "reserved," where "in heaven." So whatever our hope is, it isn't heaven, but it's in heaven. You see the difference. It's not heaven, but whatever it is it's there.
Colossians 1:5, "For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven." Then in the simplest sense, heaven is not our hope, but our hope is there. Now what is our hope? Well, it's important for us to know what our hope is. It's a shame that many Christians don't. Paul prayed that we might. Ephesians 1:18, he says, "I'm praying that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His calling."
Paul says you ought to know it and I'm praying you'll understand what you're hope is. Now you say well, tell us what it is. I will in a minute. But let me give you a little bit about it. Whatever our hope is, it makes us rejoice. Romans Chapter 5, verse 1, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand," watch, "and rejoice in hope." Whatever our hope is it makes us rejoice.
Now let me add a thought to that. Whatever our hope is, it is only one hope, only one. Ephesians 4:4, "There's one body, there's one spirit, even as you are called in," what, "one hope of your calling." It's cause for rejoicing and it's only one hope. Not only that whatever it is, it's given to us by grace, which means you can't earn it. In 2 Thessalonians 2:16 we read "Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God even our Father who hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace." God has given us this hope by grace. It can't be earned. You can't deserve it. You can't earn it, it's a gift of grace.
Now whatever this hope is, Peter said as we just read in 1 Peter 1:3, it's alive, it's a living hope. So it makes us rejoice. It's only one. It comes by grace and it's alive. The Peter said "it's reserved in heaven." So whatever it is, it's in heaven right now waiting for us. You say well that means it's future doesn't it? Exactly. It's definitely in the future. The point being that our hope is future. It is reserved for us. It is laid away for us in heaven and we wait for it by faith.
Now let me show you what it is. Turn to Hebrews Chapter 6, verse 18 and you're going to get close to what our hope is. It makes us rejoice. There's only one of them. It's given us by grace. It's alive. It's reserved in heaven. It's not visible incidentally. Remember Romans 8:24-25, "The hope that is seen is," what, "is not hope." It's invisible. It's future. We wait for it by faith. Now let's see something else about it. Hebrews 6:18, "That by two immutable things," and this was the promise of God and His oath as He swore by Himself, "by two immutable things, in which it's impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who hath fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hopes set before us."
All that verse is saying is that by two things God has guaranteed our hope. His promise and His oath. Our hope is a guaranteed thing. Now what is it? Verse 19, "Which hope we have as anchor of the soul." Now our hope is a guaranteed thing. "It's an anchor," watch "both sure and steadfast which entereth into that within the veil."
Ah ha, now we find out a little more about our hope. Whatever it is, it anchors us and it's inside the veil in the holy of holies, the heavenly place where God dwells. Verse 20, "Where the forerunner is for us entered," want to know who our hope is, "even," what's the next word, "Jesus." Beloved that's as simply as it could be said. Our hope is not salvation. It's not eternal life. It's not death. It's not heaven. It's whom? It's Jesus.
He is our hope. He is alive. He causes us to rejoice. He comes to use by grace. There's only one of Him. He is reserved in heaven for us. It is in the future that we're going to see Him. He is presently now invisible. He is our hope. In Titus 2:11, let me take you a step further. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly. Righteously and godly in this present age." Now watch the next verse. "Looking for that blessed," what, "hope, even" and the word cia as well translated even, as and, and here better translated even, "that blessed hope even the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ." He again is our hope.
Now if you want something more specific than that, listen to this one. 1 Timothy 1:1, are you ready? I love this. "Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior," listen, "and the Lord Jesus Christ who is our hope." There it is. And slowly, but surely we zeroed in on our hope. The blessed hope of a believer, my friends, is Jesus Christ Himself in His glorious appearing."
But let me take a step further. Are you ready for this? 1 John Chapter 3, and this adds a dimension that just ought to thrill you to the very depth of your being." Verse 2, 1 John 3, "Beloved now are we the children of God." That's present tense. "But it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. And every many that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure."
There's the second feature of our hope. Our hope is our Christ. Our hope secondly is being like Christ, you see? Now let me say it as simply as I can. The hope of every Christian is the appearing of Jesus Christ and at that moment when we become like Him. That is our hope. The return of Jesus as He personally returns and when we see Him, we are like Him. That is our hope.
And that's the hope reserved for us in heaven. The appearance of Christ and in the moment that He appears, we are transformed into His likeness. That is our hope. To see Him is to be like Him. Now the Thessalonian church knew what their hope was, and this is a wonderful text. In 1 Thessalonians 1:10, it says "that this church was waiting for His Son from heaven." And that's what every church and every believer is really waiting for. "For the Son to appear from heaven, for in the moment when we see Him we will be like Him." That is our hope, being like Christ.
When the Lord Jesus Christ is ready to terminate the church age, the age in which we now live, He will appear in the air and He will gather all Christians to Himself. And they will all in an instant be like Him forever. That is our hope.
Now there are three major passages in the New Testament which clearly discuss this and I want to show you those three. The first is John Chapter 14, and I want us to look together at what has to be the most thrilling thing that a believer can yet desire and wait for, the appearing of Jesus Christ when we shall be like Him.
John 14 is the first introduction of the coming of Jesus Christ for His church. This is the first revelation of the rapture. And incidentally, we use the rapture frequently. It comes from the Latin word, and the Latin word means to catch away or snatch away. And the church is to be snatched from the earth, caught away. That is the rapture. Now in John Chapter 13, so we can kind of get a running start on 14, Jesus had met with His disciples the last night before His betrayal and arrest. And He really loved them. And everything He was about to do was based on His love for them.
Look at verse 1 of Chapter 13. "Now before the feast of the Passover when Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them to the uttermost." Or He loved them completely. He loved them fully or He loved them right up to the end, both and all of those are equally true.
And so Jesus is in love with His disciples, and out of that burning love that He has for them comes all of the features of the next three chapters. And including the fourth chapter, the 17th. He just flows out with love. To begin with, He washes there feet, in verses 2 through 17, expressing their...His love to them in the most humble menial fashion imaginable.
Having done that, He speaks to them of His death. Look at verse 21. "When Jesus had thus said He was troubled in spirit, testified and said, verily, verily I say unto you one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one upon another doubting of whom He spoke." You see it had just been a time of love. It had just been a sweetest kind of fellowship as Jesus had washed their feet and tears of penitence's had come down their faces and they recognized how they had been proud and how they should have been washing His feet. And even Peter said, "Lord, you'll never touch my feet." And the Lord said, "If I don't wash, you have no part with me." And Peter said, "All right, Lord I'll have my feet washed, and my head and the whole works."
And they were full of remorse and sorrow because they had not shown the same love that Christ had shown them. And here all of a sudden in the midst of all of this love, "He says, one of you is going to betray me and they can't believe it." He was speaking of His death. And then He turned to Judas and said what you do, go and do it quickly. And He sent Judas out."
And verse 31 says "then when He was gone out, Jesus said now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in Him." Knowing that Judas had gone about to do his heinous deed of betrayal, Jesus knew the hour of His death was eminent. That for which He had waited 33 years on earth. That for which He had waited throughout all eternity. That moment of excruciation on the cross was about to happen.
But Jesus saw it as His own glorification. He said, "Now is the Son of man glorified," for it was on the cross that He was most glorious, winning the victory over sin and Satan. And He went on to say, "And God has glorified in Him," for on the cross He exhibited all of the attributes of God. The cross was the beginning of His glorification. But I don't think it ended there. Verse 32, "If God be glorified in Him on the cross, God shall also glorify Him in himself and shall straight way glorify Him." And there Jesus saw not only the glory of the cross, but the glory of the resurrection and the glory of the ascension and the glory of His place at the right hand of the Father.
Jesus is saying finally the struggle is over. All of the waiting is done. Now I am going to be glorified. Now all of this glorification meant that He had to leave the disciples. And so in loving tender compassion, He speaks to them in verse 33. Technia, "Little children yet a little while I am with you." I'm not going to be around long, He says. "You shall seek me, and as I said unto the Jews, where I go ye cannot come so now I say to you."
When He said that to the Jews, He added the statement "ye shall die in your sins." He never said that here. The Jews could never come where He was. The disciples just had to wait a little longer. But Jesus makes the announcement. But they can't come where He's going. Well, this is awfully hard for them to handle. They had a spiritual heart attack. They had put all their eggs in the basket of Jesus Christ. They had believed with all their hearts He was the Messiah. And now He was going to leave them. And now just when everything was hot and it was rough and persecution had broken out against them or begun to break out and it was very difficult and now they realize He's going to be gone.
In verse 36 Simon who was often the spokesman reveals the attitude of everybody. He says, "Lord where goesth thou?" Where are you going? Jesus answer him, "where I go you can't follow me now, but you'll follow me hereafter." He says, I'm going to leave and you can't come.
Peter says, "Look I'll follow you anywhere you go, I'll even die if need be." Well that was the expression of the emotion of the moment. Jesus was leaving and they couldn't handle it. In fact, they go so turn up that in verse 1 of Chapter 14, we begin to see what Jesus says, "Let not your heart be troubled." The literal is stop having troubled hearts. Stop letting your hearts be troubled. It means they already were troubled. They were already bent to the very depths of their souls. They were in anguish because Jesus was leaving.
They were bewildered. The gloomy prospect of the absence of Christ was something they couldn't handle. You see they were they sure He was the Messiah. They were absolutely convinced that He was the Messiah. And the only idea of a Messiah that they ever had was a Messiah who was an illustrious conqueror. Who was a reigning king on the earth. They had no concept of a Messiah who stuck around a while and went back to heaven or went off somewhere. The only Messiah they knew was one who conquered and who stayed and remained on the earth. This dying and leaving thing just wasn't in their messianic script.
Didn't fit. And they had forsaken everything to follow Jesus. They had given up home and family and trades and jobs and positions and they had given it all up for Him. And now what is this about your leaving and they were shook. Jesus was in some sorrow Himself. Jesus knew that the cross was just around the corner and there was no way they could relieve Him of His sorrow.
But it was sure possible for Him to relieve them of theirs and Jesus was always lost in the consciousness of somebody else's problems. Even when He was dying on the cross, He was more concerned about the thief next to Him than He was about Himself. And so He realizes that they're grieving and He feels their grief. He felt their hurts. And so in loving comfort he speaks to them. And His words are so beautiful. Verse 1, "Stop letting your hearts be troubled." And I know there's sorrow in pathos in His voice because He loved them.
He says, "you believe in God, believe also in me." In other words, He calls on faith. He says, hang in there guys. Have I ever failed you? You believe in God, God comes through, you know who I am, believe in me. I'm not going to fail you. So He calls for faith. He says, you've lived all your life believing in God, now believe in me.
And then He takes it a step further and gives them a promise. I love this. "In my Father's house are many mansions." That's the old King James. That translation has perpetrated more error than perhaps any other verse. We have the ideas of all kinds of big monstrous mansions all over heaven. And we're all concerned and I've heard people preach about the kind of life you live as sending up certain material. And some of us are going to live in hubbles by the tracks. And others are going to live in great white mansions with a hundred rooms down there where God's house.
Don't you believe it. Nobody's going to live four blocks or eight blocks or a quarter mile from God's house. "In my Father's house," "In my Father's house," where? "In my Father's house are many dwelling places." The literal Greek. You know His house is big?
Do you know it's the only house in heaven? Revelation 21:16 says "it's 1,500 miles cubed." You say it doesn't sound so big. Fifteen hundred miles cubed is 2,250,000 square miles. London is a 140 square miles. I think 2,250,000 out to handle us fine. It could easily hold, according to the calculations of an architect, 100 billion people. I'm quite confident there aren't going to be that many there because narrow is the way and few there be that find it.
Plenty of room. "In my Father's house are many dwelling places." You know how they used to build a house in those days. They always had a courtyard in the middle and they build a house around it. A square around the place. The father